Opinion: Unity on the Internet

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For those of you who are regulars of social media or the internet, you may have noticed in the recent months certain fads. Whether it was an egg breaking Instagram’s record for the most liked picture, with currently over 50 million likes so far, or making the 2018 YouTube Rewind the most disliked video on YouTube, with over 15 million dislikes, the social media world has come together on multiple occasions to make history.

In this current political atmosphere such unity is key and should be noted. Even though people uniting to like an egg on Instagram is a nominal act and one that could hardly be called important, it demonstrates that there are common causes. The worst aspect of much of the political debate is the dehumanizing of the opposite side. Whether it is calling another person deplorable or a libtard, people are trivially painting their interlocutors as less than human. The disregard for the other person’s views and the disdain towards people we hardly know simply because they hold certain views about how the economy should work is troubling. But an act as simple as liking an egg can actually go a long way.

For starters, it shows that opposed sides of the debate do agree on some things, and they can work together for a common cause. Whether they thought about it or not, liberals are supporting something a conservative supports, Republicans are supporting something a Democrat supports. While I don’t believe that liking eggs is the solution to our political climate, I do believe in the importance of recognizing the commonalities people have.

In order to have constructive political discourse, people must find some common ground because it is that common ground that allows a person to see validity in the other person’s opinions. If one opinion is valid, then others could be too. I do not think I have solved any problems, but I do hope I did not make more. But now I am off to go like a cracked egg.